BREAKING- Aastrin Biosciences Halted- News Pending (ASTM)

Update: The company announced that it priced 29 million shares at $0.30 raising $8.7 million. Trading 50 percent lower.

Aastrom Biosciences (NASDAQ: ASTM) is halted with news pending. The stock closed at $0.53 Monday and trades an average of 524,000 shares. The stock has lost 60 percent of its value this year.

On Monday, the company announced that it has entered into an agreement with Eastern Capital Limited to amend the Company’s Series B Preferred Stock Certificate of Designations, Preferences and Rights to, among other things, amend the treatment of the Company’s Series B-1 Non-Voting Preferred Stock and Series B-2 Voting Preferred Stock. As a result of the amendment, the Series B-2 Shares will be reclassified from mezzanine equity to shareholders’ equity on the Company’s balance sheet, increasing shareholders’ equity by $37.7 million.

Company Profile:

Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., a development stage company, engages in the development of patient-specific, cell products for use in the treatment of severe, chronic ischemic cardiovascular diseases. It is developing ixmyelocel-T, a patient-specific multicellular therapy expanded from a patient’s own bone marrow and delivered directly to damaged tissues. The companys ixmyelocel-T is in late-stage clinical development, including a Phase III clinical program to study patients with critical limb ischemia and a Phase IIb clinical trial in patients with ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.